Re: Mark IV data off by one day

[David Gamble <dgamble1@bigpond.net.au>]

Hi Tom,

It seems to me that it would be a good idea to automate the setting of
clocks so as to eliminate the possibility of human error. While the Linux
solution is the obvious long term solution, it may be possible to sort out
your network problems quickly so that you can use one of the Internet time
servers immediately. This would fix your "off by one day" problem and you
could then set up Chris's NTP servers if you need sub second accuracy.

As I understand it, some or all of your Windows computers cannot talk to the
Internet. In order to debug the system we need a few details:

1. Basic network topology - I think you have a DSL broadband connection -
does this connect to a router, switch,  hub or computer?

2. What network protocol(s) are you running? I would suggest plain vanilla
TCP/IP and get rid of any others unless absolutely vital.

3. Are you setting the IP address manually, or using a DHCP server? If
manually they typically should all be of the form 192.168.0.nnn subnet
255.255.255.0

3. can you ping all the computers on the network? Try setting up a DOS  .bat
file with a series of PING commands with the IP address of each of your
network computers.

Hope this helps





----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris Albertson" <chrisalbertson90278@yahoo.com>
To: "David Gamble" <dgamble1@bigpond.net.au>; <tdroege2@earthlink.net>;
<tass@listserv.wwa.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 08, 2004 5:02 AM
Subject: Re: Mark IV data off by one day


>
> Tom,
>
> Yes you can get "time data" from Internet public time servers
> to your Windows PCs even if the Windows PC can't "see" the Internet.
> It's a common problem with a comomon solution.  Newer versions
> of both Windows and Linux come with the software you need.
>
> No time to write a book about it here but you want to set up
> one or more Linux PCs are NTP Servers that use a few servers
> out on the net as sources.  As long as the LInux PC can see the 'net
> at least a few times a day they will stay in sync with "true UTC"
> to the sub-second level.  WIth DSL they will stay sync'd to the
> milisecond level.  Fermi lab just happens to have a public access
> NTP server as do many universities and RedHat.com has two.  You
> need to find about five.
>